Tether advances plans to bring USDT to Bitcoin network

Tether is advancing efforts to reintegrate its stablecoin, USDT, with the Bitcoin network to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions. While USDT was originally issued on Bitcoin via the Omni Layer, much of its activity migrated to networks like Ethereum and Tron.

Two distinct technical approaches are currently being developed. Tether has announced plans to connect USDT with Bitcoin’s base layer and the Lightning Network using Lightning Labs’ Taproot Assets protocol. Concurrently, Utexo—a company that recently secured $7.5 million in seed funding co-led by Tether—is building infrastructure using the RGB protocol alongside Bitcoin and Lightning.

Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk reported meeting with Morgan Stanley representatives in Washington to discuss USDT adoption through Bitcoin, though the bank has not confirmed any association. Utexo claims to have over 450 businesses, including exchanges and payment companies, in its pipeline. Despite these developments, there is currently no confirmed timetable for wide consumer availability or a specific customer launch date for these integrated services.